USActionhttp://usaction.org
Organizing to win justice for all. We are the true majority.Fri, 18 Sep 2015 19:11:07 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.10USAction Progressive Leadership Awardshttp://usaction.org/2014/10/usaction-progressive-leadership-awards/
http://usaction.org/2014/10/usaction-progressive-leadership-awards/#commentsTue, 21 Oct 2014 15:55:19 +0000http://usaction.org/?p=5641http://usaction.org/2014/10/usaction-progressive-leadership-awards/feed/0President Obama: Stop These Corporate Desertershttp://usaction.org/2014/08/president-obama-stop-these-corporate-deserters/
http://usaction.org/2014/08/president-obama-stop-these-corporate-deserters/#commentsThu, 07 Aug 2014 19:33:23 +0000http://usaction.org/?p=5631More than a dozen corporations are plotting to change their addresses to tax haven countries to dodge paying billions of dollars in U.S. taxes. If they succeed, the rest of us will be stuck picking up the tab.

We can’t wait for Congress to act. Too many members of Congress are getting their campaign coffers lined with donations from tax-dodging corporations. They’re being told to do nothing, and they’re playing along.

But President Obama CAN act – and he has promised to do so. He hasn’t yet decided what action he will take. We have to convince him to take the strongest possible action to block every U.S.-based corporation from deserting America for tax havens.

In the last few weeks, members of Congress from states like Kentucky and Maryland have been replaying the old ’50’s sitcom “Father Knows Best” and decreeing they know what’s best for the residents of the District of Columbia, wielding their own agendas on D.C. through the Fiscal Year 2015 District of Columbia Appropriations bill because, unfortunately, they can. If D.C. was considered a state like say, Maryland or Kentucky, this would not be a problem. But alas, more than 600,000 DC residents are not represented by two Senators and a voting member of the House of Representatives. So, 535 members of Congress, for which not one D.C. resident voted for, get to try and dictate local policy. Just this week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve an amendment by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) that would “block virtually all of the District’s gun restrictions,” according to the Washington Post. This was an almost-identical bill to one introduced last week by Tea Party leader and fellow Kentuckian Republican Senator Rand Paul. Duly elected local officials have already established D.C.’s gun laws. It really begs the question – where is the democracy in our democracy?

Senator Paul’s amendment proposed to loosen many of Washington D.C.’s strong and important gun laws. The amendment would have, according to the Washington Post, repealed strong gun registration requirements, “end[ed] the ban on semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines, expand[ed] the right to carry guns outside the home and protect[ed] the right to carry guns on federal land in D.C. and elsewhere in the country.” Aside from the clear safety concerns these amendments present – especially in the nation’s capital where federal land ownership is vast – they are the starkest examples yet of why D.C. must achieve self determination. Republicans have had bees in their bonnets over D.C.’s gun laws since they were first enacted. But now they have found a new issue du jour, marijuana policy. Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) decided he would take a hiatus from serving his constituents to try and reverse D.C.’s new marijuana decriminalization policies, which were recently approved in his own state of Maryland, with bi-partisan sponsorship. D.C.’s lawmakers passed decriminalization of possession of small amounts of marijuana because it had wide support from residents, particularly in helping to reduce racial disparities in marijuana possession laws and to help keep more hard-working D.C. residents contributing to society and out of jail. (Let’s face it, it wasn’t the college kids and 20-something politico recreational users who were getting locked up). Rep. Harris – if you feel so passionate about the law, why not focus on your own state?

For years, conservative politicians have used Congress’s unique federal jurisdiction over the District to wield their extreme social agendas, many of whom ironically support “limited” government regulation for all other matters. Adding insult to injury, a few weeks ago along with supporting Harris’ bill, House Republicans approved their annual riders to decide what types of health care D.C. women can receive through Medicaid, regardless of how their democratically elected officials have voted in the best interests of their constituents. Just like every other jurisdiction in the 50 states, D.C. residents seek to have equal representation in the government and the opportunity to elect representatives who will make decisions on behalf of their needs – the very bedrock of our democracy. Washington D.C. was not established to be an example territory upon which lawmakers can impose their agendas to win praise from top interest groups and donors. D.C. deserves autonomy now more than ever. Fortunately, Senator Paul’s amendment died but people of his state – which is ranked 15th in the country for firearm deaths – have not been so lucky.

The influx of congressional “meddling” with DC laws even caused the President to publish a Statement of Administration Policy, denouncing many of the riders, including the marijuana decriminalization measure, promising a veto if they ever hit his desk and going so far as to say it was an issue of “state’s rights and District home rule.” USAction has a long history of amassing its grassroots base across the country to stop extreme politicians. Last fall, when the government shut down in the midst of partisan wrangling and congressional dysfunction, USAction called on GOP members of Congress to “cease and desist” with their extreme politics. While it’s not about a government shutdown this time, the analogy could not be more fitting for Rand Paul’s new prerogative to legislate in the District of Columbia. Please Rep. Harris, Rep. Massie, and Senator Paul and the rest of you: keep your extremism in your own states and if you want to legislate in D.C. run for office there.

]]>http://usaction.org/2014/07/wheres-the-democracy-in-our-democracy-the-nations-capital-example/feed/0Walgreens, we need to talk.http://usaction.org/2014/07/walgreens-we-need-to-talk/
http://usaction.org/2014/07/walgreens-we-need-to-talk/#commentsFri, 18 Jul 2014 18:29:15 +0000http://usaction.org/?p=5611Did you know that America’s largest pharmacy chain wants to dodge billions in U.S. taxes by changing its corporate address to a tax haven?

The tax code can be tricky but this is pretty simple. Walgreens wants to break up with America to dodge U.S. taxes and still get the benefits of everything we built together.

Walgreens doesn’t make $72 billion in revenue last year without American customers. Or the $16.7 billion of that revenue which comes from Medicare and Medicaid. Or without the roads and bridges to ship goods. Or the safety and security provided by local police and firefighters.

The issue here isn’t simply that corporations must pay their fair share in taxes. Or that consumers have the collective power to hold corporations accountable. We believe that if you do good in America, you should do good by America.

The entire F-35 fleet was grounded due to an engine fire, making the F-35 a no-show at a high profile international air show this week. They’re also hoping nobody noticed Canada just hit pause on their F-35 purchase to evaluate other options.

Lockheed Martin, Pratt & Whitney and other Pentagon contractors are profiting off the taxpayer’s dime and funneling money into campaign coffers and lobbying. Even war hawk Senator John McCain describes the F-35 as the “worst example of the military-industrial-congressional complex.”1

They’re rigging the system so the F-35 wins and working families lose as vital programs like food assistance, infrastructure repair and education are slashed again and again.

So what could we have invested in instead of the most wasteful program in the history of the military? Our friends at Think Progress recently broke down the numbers and found that we could buy every homeless person in the U.S. a mansion, feed every schoolkid in the country or boost infrastructure funding needed to rebuild America.2

Earlier this week, not too far from where I live and the offices of USAction, the US Supreme Court issued two troubling decisions. The Court’s 5-4 ruling to allow owners of for-profit corporations to deny their employees coverage for preventive care, in this case birth control, that they believe is against their religion, and its subsequent 5-4 decision to allow some public employees inIllinois to opt out of paying union dues, set dangerous precedents for the rights of workers across the nation. Although the rulings themselves were framed technically only to affect very specific groups of employers and employees, the decisions opened the proverbial legal flood gates for corporations and dogged interests who are intent on controlling women’s private health care decisions and destroying the labor movement’s decades of work to fight for working families. Women – and men for that matter – should have the right to privately make decisions about their own health care. With the Hobby Lobby decision, who knows what other benefits corporations might deny their employees or actively discriminate against them in the name of their owner’s religion. In its decision in Harris v. Quinn, the Court handed a long-sought victory to anti-union activists who have been advocating for dismantling unions for years. The purpose of unions is engrained in our Bill of Rights, allowing workers to freely associate and amass their collective voice in order to demand better wages, improved benefits and a work setting that is safe for them and their co-workers.

This Independence Day, I thank the founding fathers for their fight to give us acountry that has afforded us freedom and inalienable rights as citizens. However, when they created a new nation, on the very foundation of religious liberty, I do not think they intended for it to extend to corporations. Strict Constructionist have been clamoring for years about getting the government out of our private lives but apparently are constitutional fine with allowing a CEO power over an individuals private medical decisions. When did the church of Gordon Gekko become a sanctioned religion? But I guess it should come as no surprise considering the rousing amen Governor Mitt Romney and former Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney received among Conservatives when he said “corporations are people too.” But corporations are not people – they are served by people who deserve to have individual rights. Whether it be the right to make private decisions about their own health or the right to assemble and take collective action to improve their working conditions – we are headed in a dangerous direction if corporations are suddenly arbiters of the Constitution.

But this is no time to throw in the towel. The word “action” is at the core of USAction. And we will act. We will act to protect the rights of working men and women to have a voice on the job, and we will fight to protect the rights of women to make their private health choices, free from employer scrutiny. In spite of the courts display of judicial activism, on this 4th, I will evoke the spirit of Founding Fathers and renew mine and USAction’s commitment to using the democratic process to protect the rights of working men and women and to ensure that healthcare is available to all and that those private decisions a woman makes about her health are made by her, her doctor and her God.

]]>http://usaction.org/2014/07/the-supreme-court-wont-stop-us/feed/0USAction Statement on Harris V. Quinn Supreme Court Decisionhttp://usaction.org/2014/07/usaction-statement-on-harris-v-quinn-supreme-court-decision/
http://usaction.org/2014/07/usaction-statement-on-harris-v-quinn-supreme-court-decision/#commentsTue, 01 Jul 2014 16:16:15 +0000http://usaction.org/?p=5593“The US Supreme Court’s extreme views will not stop workers from coming together to fight for our rights inside the workplace and quality services in our communities. USAction stands with our brothers and sisters to have the freedom to choose to come together to make our communities strong against greedy CEO’s that only care about their profits and pay packages.”

Washington, DC – Americans are ready to stand up for good jobs and will continue to have a strong voice for the middle class across the country in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Harris v. Quinn today.

“No court case will stand in the way of working people coming together to have their voices heard to make real change in our communities,” said Fred Azcarate, Executive Director of USAction.

The National Right to Work Foundation, an extreme anti-worker group, whose founders include billionaires like Charles Koch and the Walton family, brought this case. It is the latest effort to attack workers rights and freedoms to choose if they want to collectively come together to improve their lives and the communities that they serve.

Fred Azcarate added, “USAction stands with our brothers and sisters that fight for quality services in home care, an industry that its workers are paid low wages for back breaking work. We believe in an economy that works for all of us – a cornerstone of that economy is the ability for workers to collectively bargain with their employers. Being able to have the freedom to join together in a strong collective voice is fairness plain and simple.”

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]]>http://usaction.org/2014/07/usaction-statement-on-harris-v-quinn-supreme-court-decision/feed/0U.S. Senate, sponsored by the Koch Brothershttp://usaction.org/2014/06/u-s-senate-sponsored-by-the-koch-brothers/
http://usaction.org/2014/06/u-s-senate-sponsored-by-the-koch-brothers/#commentsThu, 19 Jun 2014 15:37:58 +0000http://usaction.org/?p=5563
]]>http://usaction.org/2014/06/u-s-senate-sponsored-by-the-koch-brothers/feed/0Tell the President and Congress: #DontBombIraqhttp://usaction.org/2014/06/tell-the-president-and-congress-dontbombiraq/
http://usaction.org/2014/06/tell-the-president-and-congress-dontbombiraq/#commentsMon, 16 Jun 2014 16:09:30 +0000http://usaction.org/?p=5578SIGN THE PETITION: Tell the President and Congress to oppose military action in Iraq, including air strikes. The American people don’t want to restart the Iraq War.

President Obama will decide in the next few days whether the United States will use military force in Iraq.

American bombs are not the answer to a crisis in need of a diplomatic solution. Your voice is critical to urge the President to make the right decision.

No matter how much Senator John McCain wants to go back to war in Iraq, bombing a country in the midst of civil war and on the brink of collapse could make things even worse.

Thankfully there are progressive champions, like Iraq War Veteran, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard standing up to McCain and other war hawks — “It makes no sense for us to consider going back there and getting involved in what truly is a religious civil war. What real difference would (air strikes) make on the ground? And secondly, is it in the best interests of the United States to do that? I would say that those questions are not being answered in a compelling way that would cause me to support that.”

Help us send a message that the American people don’t want to restart the Iraq War.